Fertility And Acupuncture: The Natural Pairing

November 1, 2016

While most of our focus tends to be on pregnancy and birth, it’s important to remember that many women struggle earlier, and find it difficult to fall pregnant at all. It’s been said that it’s one of the most stressful times of a woman’s life, having made the decision to have a baby, only to find that it’s not that straightforward.

There are many different things that can be tried, ranging from simple home techniques like the tracking of the monthly cycle and making sure that attempts to conceive happen at the optimal time, all the way through to expensive repeated cycles of IVF treatments. It is a huge range of possibilities, of course, and somewhere between those two extremes comes the opportunity to turn to alternative treatments, and acupuncture.

It’s common that people recoil at the word acupuncture, as it conjures up thoughts of being stabbed with hundreds of needles. While it’s true to a point, most patients are actually pleasantly surprised at how little pain is experienced, with some hardly even noticing the prickly sensation. To rewind a little, though, the idea of utilising acupuncture points as a fertility treatment is nothing new, but the increasing popularity certainly is. There is some speculation as to whether the impressive results chalked up to the treatment are genuinely a direct result of cause and effect, or whether the engagement with a treatment that relaxes the patient simply increases the chances of conceiving. Either way, you won’t find many women that complain if the result is that they fall pregnant.

Here’s a look at an example acupuncture session, which might cover some of your questions and settle any concerns that you may have about the procedures…

Finding Out More About Acupuncture For Fertility

Acupuncture works by manipulating pressure points around the body. For fertility treatments, the sessions will focus on specific points, which you can learn more about from the experts at Bounty. They cover an enormous amount of detail about how the treatments work and what they involve, even focusing on the specifics like the individual fertility acupuncture points.

You’ll notice that site has a primarily American focus – in the UK we have a fairly limited interest in alternative medicine by comparison. There is however a growing interest within the NHS about acupuncture and fertility, which will hopefully grow to rival the healthcare in the USA.

The big advantage of turning to these natural treatments is that they’re more directly tailored to you as an individual, while at the same time being relatively affordable and non-invasive. You can always turn to more significant treatments later if you continue to struggle to get a positive outcome. It’s also a good idea to make an appointment to see your GP, we recommend you visit as a couple too – many women go alone and then find that their partner has questions that they didn’t think to ask, or even starts to feel the pressure and gets a sense of letting her partner down.

Getting pregnant is something that couples do – just because its the woman that physically carries the growing baby doesn’t mean that she should feel the pressure to ‘fix’ any perceived problem. It is always possible that the converse is true – there are plenty of fertility issues suffered by men too, but in most cases, it’s just a case of continuing to try, while giving yourself the best possible chance of success. Acupuncture is just one component of that journey.